fabricating an exhaust

[grumpyvette]

face it, many, maybe, most muffler shops want you in and out of thier bays as fast as possiable and want to use the least expensive components they can find , and want to take the least effort and time they can, yet derive the most proffit, from the work. you can totally avoid that by either buying top quality components and paying big bucks, or...if your budgets like mine....

if something BREAKS , well,thats a P.I.T.A., and probably a badly designed or improperly installed component, but thats what WELDERS are designed for.....learn to weld and things like that are at most a minor repair that will usually take well under 30 minutes and its almost certain that you can put some thought into the repair and make it darn near "bullet proof"

and very unlikely to re-occure:thumbsup:

no part is immune from a bad installation.

in fact! once you learn to weld and you can weld up a totally custom exhaust that will exactly match your design and application goals for far less than you can buy one for, in cheap aluminized steel or the far better stainless steel

 

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?Ntk=KeywordSearch&DDS=1&Ntt=exhaust+kit&searchinresults=false&N=700+115&y=6&x=32

 

http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/category_10001_10002_11525_-1_10245

 

http://www.magnaflow.com/02product/universalsatinxl.asp

 

http://www.flowmastermufflers.com/mufflers.html

 

 

http://www.borla.com/products/universal.aspx

 

you can build your own stainless steel exhaust system and personally install it and its very unlikely to cost nearly what youll pay a muffler shop, and if you shop for components carefully youll find that a stainless exhaust will cost only slightly more than the muffler shop charges for inferior aluminized steel

if yourgoing thru the work do it correctly, buy and install decent components so your not back doing it again in a year or so!

 

BUT THEN I ONLY BUY AND INSTALL STAINLESS COMPONENTS IF GIVEN AN OPTION, INSTALL THEM MYSELF, AND CAN,T REMEMBER HAVING PROBLEMS INSTALLING OR HAVING A COMPONENT FAIL IF ITS PROPERLY INSTALLED...QUALITY EXHAUST HANGERS DON,T GENERALLY FAIL AND QUALITY WELDS DON,T GENERALLY BREAK, AND IF YOU INSTALL IN CORRECTLY YOURSELF AND CAN WELD YOULL SAVE MONEY AND HAVE THE EQUIPMENT AND SKILL TO FIX IT IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT IT DID BREAK:thumbsup:

 

JUST ONE MORE REASON TO LEARN TO WELD AND HAVE ACCESS TO A GOOD MIG,TIG, OR OXY-ACETOLENE TORCH:D :thumbsup:

[TheNick]

Best place I've found to get exhaust parts:

 

http://www.verociousmotorsports.com/

 

Great customer service and high quality parts. The Aero Mufflers and Resonators kick ass too.

[woldson]

I know Grumpy knows far more then myself, however, I'm still running my same exhaust from my 82 that I put on my 83. 2.5in aluminumized pipe.

Going on like ten years. When transfered a couple a couple of years ago the exterior and interior were in fantastic condition.

 

I will say that there is no cat. Also I will note that the muffler is ss.

One more point, these cars seem to have VERY hot exhaust systems.

Don't touch my tail pipe even after a short run.

 

With that said Grumpys advice is solid. If my whole system was ss, ummm it would outlast the car! I like doing things "forever". Hate doing crap twice.

[MoNkEyT88]

Also, when I built mine with stainless steel I didn't have access to a tubing bender.

 

So I created the bends using segments, or segmented bends.

 

 

 

Here is a calculator for doing segmented bends.

 

http://www.porcupinepress.com/_bending/segmentbends.htm

[Tony D]

Very JDM! They are big on segment bends in Japan, I think there is more tradition involved or showing off their welding ability than any other practical reason for doing it nowadays. Mandrel Bends are readily available now, for the most part negating 'having' to segment bend tubing for turbos and exhausts.

 

Thank Gawd!

[grumpyvette]

some of you gentelmen can obviously weld better than I can much of the time as far as appearance goes!

[V8INtheZ]

I bought a mandrel bent universal dual exhaust from Jegs. Cost me $260 and Im splitting it with a friend. We only used about half of the kit too. Its not ss, but its a functional performance exhaust that was really cheap.

[240hoke]

I just got done fabricating my SS exhaust. I am very happy with the results and have a finished product I can be proud of at the end of the day. A full stainless steel exhaust though is no doubt a huge expense. I am of the opinion that a properly built aluminized system gives you far better bang for your buck. I spent around 1000 dollars for a single stainless steel exhaust with all supplies including my welding gas etc. When I was finished I will say that I have an appreciation for a well made exhaust, I would say I have around 20-30 hours in it total...makes the 1500 dollar mail oder exhaust for new cars seem cheap!

 

Also one thing that I didnt do and wished i would have...If you are welding stainless dont forget to back flow the tubingor for an even easier approach use Solar Flux on the inside....this will lead to much higher quality welds and no build-up inside the tubing.

 

Solar Flux:

http://www.solarflux.com/Pages/Menu.html

 

Here is another good site for cheap mandrel bends, their stainless is beautiful, and they have the cheapest prices i have found I think they are suppliers for a lot of online tubing sites. They have a list of what they stock and you can special order bends in different radius's and in 15 degree increments...usually takes about 2 weeks to receive special order ones:

http://www.globaltecheng.com/elbows.htm

 

Pictures of my exhaust building:

www.vq240z.com/exhaust

 

[jeffer949]

Ive found mandrelbendingsoultions.com to have gret prices. Its where i get all my stuff at

[grumpyvette]

thanks! good link!

[Evan Purple240zt]

http://www.mandrel-bends.com

 

I bought a ton of stuff from there. Good pricing and quality.

 

Evan

[johnc]

Do your best to avoid using segment bends. They add a lot of turbulence and flow separation to the exhaust and increase internal pressure over a mandrel bend.

[rbpowered280z]

i see a rotary housing in the back. and is that you? nice exhaust. vq huh, badass engine. good luck with the build.

 

Lloyd

[AK-Z]

Curious on how few segments is needed for to make a exhaust pipe and if there is a company that sells oval ss piping.

[wickiewicked240z]

http://store.racing-solutions.org/index.html

 

thats were I got my mandrel bends from

[rdelat]

make and sell aluminized mandrel bend

[rdelat]

[weirtech]

building a ss exhaust from home (done properly) is going to cost more than double what an aluminized exhaust costs, just in materials. never mind consumables. backpurging is an absolute must on thin stainless like 16g tubing imo. pie cutting (segmented bends) is a big no-no as well. sure they may do it in japan, but that doesn't make it the right way to do it. i get most of my supplies locally, but have bought piping from velocityair (globaltecheng) because they have amazing prices and even better customer service. for flanges, well, i just use my own. http://www.homemadeturbo.com/forum/index.php?topic=83018.0

[hughdogz]

Great thread Guys!! I can visualize how segmented bends can cause flow separation at the inside-corner walls and create turbulence, (aka "tumbling" => backpressure). I've been trying to keep them to a minimum, but sometimes that is all I can come up with in a pinch.

 

 

I realize now I probably have 10x more weld bead than needed, lol. It is great to see others handy-work for guidance.

 

What is the deal with stainless over aluminized? That the corrosion is less? It seems it would only matter on the inside, where you can get more buildup from the carbon / oxidation??

 

If you're in the PacNW / Left coast, I like this outfit for raw mandrel bends / V-bands at at decent price: http://store.racing-solutions.org/

 

Austin...20-30 hours of cutting and Tig'ing...huh? I was wondering how you were able to do those collector cuts and make it come out perfect!! Very Nice Job.

 

rdelat, I've always admired your builds. Thanks for posting up that photo Man!! ...that last one is an S130

[Dayz]

I don't know if I am off topic,

 

I plan to mig weld SS exhaust with Argon/co2, do I have to backpurge, if so with what? I have read on other website that I should be fine with the Gas and without backpurging. Please correct me,

 

Thanks

Dayz